Over the years, crowdfunding platforms that were aimed specifically at the unique needs of small press and self-published authors sprung up. These book-centric sites sought to give authors the funds they needed to secure professional editing, formatting, cover design, and even promotion, all while acknowledging that the consumers who visited their sites were specifically looking for books.

Instead of “crowdfunding” a new book, the function resulted in more of a pre-order process. However, unlike sites that allow authors to setup a pre-order if the book is fully ready for launch, book crowdfunding met the need for funding before the book was ready. Sadly, too many of these ideas came and went without much fanfare.

Until now. BookFundr is having another go at book-specific crowdfunding, and will hopefully move the concept forward in ways that other sites were not able to, largely because it was too new of a marketplace concept.

According to a statement on their website, “BookFundr is for anyone who has a book they want to develop, but find themselves short on funds. Editing, cover art and development can be expensive, but this is the solution. With BookFundr more authors can bring books with proven appeal to market. Making a funding campaign for your story is completely free – authors pay no fees. There is nothing to lose!”

But who stands to gain the most from this type of funding relationship? The numbers are somewhat vague on how crowdfunding impacts book projects, but now that crowdfunding is a far more widespread notion, perhaps the industry is ready for a new pricing model based on support rather than post-publication sales.

Great news; another means for Authors to become better and more productive ‘Authorpreneurs’ and self-publishers is only to be applauded.

One problem is apparent with all the hubub about crowdfunding; the platforms, by their own admission, are there simply to provide a means to take money; they still do not answer, or cannot answer, the challenging question: how can a would-be buyer actually FIND some Author’s book within any of their platforms? It is a needle in haystack situation where an Author is all but lost.

Indeed, any budding book-buyer will probably go straight to Amazon and certainly may not search all the crowdfunding platforms for books by subject or other means; the only people that may be buying from an Author is another Author! The existing Crowdfund platforms, of whatever type and focus, are simply to generic and do not do enough to provide a profiled, targeted, funnel of prospective buyers.